The Importance of Intersectionality in Evaluating the Surveillance and Protest Politics of the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL)

This study analyzes the political challenges presented to Black women and queer activists affiliated with Black Lives Matter (BLM) and the Movement for Black Lives (M4BL). BLM is a Black liberation global network that developed in 2013 and expanded into M4BL in 2016 to include more grassroots organizations. Social movement scholars have not centered the intersectional goals of this Black women-led M4BL or confronted the white (back-) lash of the Trump’s administration’s Department of Justice’s use of federal law to further cis-heteropatriarchal white supremacy. The Movement began and developed due to the social media and protests in Ferguson, MO. However, its potential to evolve into a long-term social movement in the twenty-first century is challenged by a void of intersectional politics and analysis. We need an intersectional lens that explores the effects of the white (back-) lash, protest politics in response to Trump administration surveillance, and sexism and homophobia in local organizations—all of which prove divisive to building an intersectional global social movement inspired by the M4BL.